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KG, sounds like a heck of a deal! I think I'm going to stick with the Polk speakers that came with the tower though. Probably keep with Polk inside boat as well. What kind of Jl amps are you trying to sell off, and would you separate from the Krypts?

I'm looking for enough thump out of the sub that I can at least hear some low's while underway, I had an older 10" JL sub in the enclosed bow of my American Skier but it wasn't powerful enough to hear once planed out.

David, thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated. Right now I'm just feeling out a good combination that isn't going to put a big dent in the boat budget. Once I figure out a plan for components I'll probably try to re-purpose as much as I can by buying used, or refurbished equipment.

KG, I gotcha. Right now none of us are good enough behind our boat to justify HLCD's, we're too focused on staying right side up on the board to pay attention to tunes!

Just looking for a good setup for cruising and jamming at the sand bar.

I have the 6.5" Polks in Monster Tower Double Barrel cans on my tower. Although the RMS rating is 60W, they will need more if you want to hear them. I have a two channel amp run in parallel powering mine, so each speaker is getting aroung 110 watts RMS. At riding speed and length, the rider can barely hear the music and the folks in the boat are complaining about the music being too loud, and you can't talk to the person sitting next to you. Its kind of a catch 22 situation with these type of speakers. If you want to hear the music while riding, HLCD speaker are the only way to go, but that is significantly more expensive. Also, you will be blasting everyone on the lake with your music and you become "that guy". I have decided that on my next boat, I am skipping the tower speakers.

My 2001 Outback has (6) 6.5" speakers inside the boat. For a sub, I built a sealed enclosure under the drivers side dash with a 10" Infinity Perfect sub (very tiny enclosure requirements, 0.6 cu. ft.) and am running about 275 watts RMS to it and it thumps quite a bit. You can hear it quite well when the boat is underway.

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. I also had that issue with my last boat, it was a direct drive closed bow so there was no escaping the tower speakers for the passengers in the back seat. I had 4 6x9's on the tower with 250W RMS to each, never really used them for anyone on the rope because the passengers in the back seat would get blown out. We're on a pretty small lake anyhow, can't be "that guy" when you're in the home owners association! This upgrade is more or less just for cruising and jammin at the sand bar.

I'm thinking the MB Quart amp will do the job, with 60W RMS going to all four tower speakers, and four of the six cabin speakers. Along with 250W RMS to a sub.

Do the HLCD speakers remedy that issue with the way they project, or is it the same deal for back seat passengers getting blasted?

I went from coaxials to HLCD and thought the coaxials were louder in the boat. HLCD does more sound projection. I originally had decided the 6.5" HLCD was the answer for me as I was concerned what friends would be blasting while I was riding. Since then, I've decided I want LOUD. Ha.

All midrange and high frequency speakers have a few common behaviors. The polar pattern will be such that you will get a lot of off-axis radiation in very close proximity that will narrow considerably as you raise the frequency and also as you increase the distance. So when the speakers are just a few feet overhead, regardless of type, you can't avoid the in-boat impact. An HLCD will have somewhat of a narrower dispersion pattern versus a dome tweeter for example. But in the final analysis, an HLCD is simply much louder, which is essentially why it projects farther, and will just be louder in the boat when played louder for the rider. There are a few things you can do like raising the height of the speakers if you have those options, mount the speakers on the rear crossbar so they are closer to the rear and tilt the tower speakers up slightly so that they project out versus down when the boat is squated and pulling. Past that the best way to make loud tower speakers more tolerable in the boat is to go with a larger tower speaker/pod that has a much warmer balance. Its often the overly aggressive high frequency stridency that is more taxing in the boat than the amplitude.

Sorry to thread jack... but I am thinking of adding tower speakers and another amp to run them and my 12" sub. Am I gonna run the battery down after 30 min? Is a second battery needed for just one additional amp?

610,
There are quite a few variables.
The amount of actual power you have, how loud you play it as a percentage of the maximum potential, the amplifier topology (whether Class AB, G/H or D), the inherent efficiency of your system design and installation execution, type of program material, EQ settings, the amp/hour capacity of your battery(s), how you charge your batteries when the boat is in storage and the condition of your batteries. Results may easily vary by +/- 100 percent with seemingly the same equipment. With an honest 1000 watts of Class AB power with a single group 24 battery in good shape you could assume the average play time at rest at close to max volume to be an hour.